Maskless Heroes
by crazyinsanebrain
Summary: The earthquake happened in the middle of the day, when no one was in costume. The team's separate reactions to a natural disaster that no one could have prevented, and the fates that they met. ONE-SHOT


"Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with."  
― **Brodi Ashton** , **Everneath**

* * *

It was so quick, so sudden, barely a slight shaking. There had been no animals fleeing their homes, no warning. First the world had shivered, then it had exploded. The lucky ones died before they knew what had happened. The unlucky ones got trapped and watched as everyone around them was crushed. The cowards ran and hid, leaving everyone else to die. And then, there were the heroes.

The heroes were the ones who tried to save everyone, who pushed the others away and took the falls themselves, who tried to rescue the screaming children. The ones who would be remembered by many for saving a life, most of the time in exchange for their own.

* * *

The earthquake happened in the middle of the day, Richard Grayson had been in school when the school crashed. Even after he had been pinned down, Dick continued to fight, he continued to save. Throwing those precious, small and spare grenades in his ordinary belt, to blow up the debris before it could kill. Not once did he think of freeing himself, blowing up the piece that trapped him, everyone of those darn grenades saved someone that wasn't him. Eventually they had to run out, but even then, he didn't give up. Throwing anything he could reach in his pockets, no matter the cost, Dick tried to break the falls of the debris, to change its falling course to avoid the other students. All around him, kids were running, debris was falling and screams pierced his ears while he kept getting more tired, and the light started to get brighter, and yet he kept fighting, he kept saving lives, literally throwing all he was worth into the battle for the living. Using every last one of his precious breaths to pull another weapon from his pocket, barely wincing when his shoulder dislocated when he attempted to throw another projectile, ignoring the pain as another piece of the school trapped one of his arms. With his other arm he pushed a kid out of the way just before the debris could kill them. Letting it fall on his last free limb and trap it there too. And when he heard the last of the ceiling crack, Dick kept his eyes on the little girl he'd saved, not scared of the journey that was about to take him to see his parents. Richard Grayson breathed his last breath peacefully, without an ounce of fear.

When Zatanna found his body, through her tears she saw that he still held a batarang, ready to throw it to save a life. Her eyes found that he was smiling, even though The Last Flying Grayson had died trapped under the weight of the world, he was smiling. Richard Grayson had died a hero.

* * *

When the world fell, Artemis had been in the basement of the school with the rest of her class. They were among the few who had felt the earth shiver before it exploded. Since they were in the basement, they could hear the screams start above ground, before they started below ground. She had no way of knowing that Robin was fighting for the life of others just above her head. All she knew, was that her bow was above ground, she was useless. So when the ceiling started to fall, at first she did nothing. Waited to be hit, waited to die. For a moment she considered escaping into the vents, surviving, waiting it out. But the vents reminded her of a "dilemma" not unlike this one. As the kids around her started to get hit, Artemis remembered a certain boyish grin and a certain phrase, "Get traught, or get dead" But now, instead of her just dying, they're dead. The ones that she swore would never be hurt by her family again, and if they die here, because she just stood there and died, she would have failed. So now it was "Get traught, or they're dead." Artemis got traught. In a spur she started to shove kids out of the way of the debris, tackling some of them if need be. Shoving them into the direction of the equipment room, yelling at the ones who could move to run to the only room that didn't seem to be exploding. Once, a falling shelf trapped her leg, but she ripped it out with a determination she never knew she possessed, ignoring the pain as it ripped into her leg, got up and started to dig out some of the kids that had been trapped. When a nail flew out of the wall and into her eye, Artemis didn't scream, she listened to the screams of others, and with blood pouring out of her eye she continued to save their butts. Not stopping when she had to break her arm to free a kid, not stopping after she found the mangled body of a young boy who had red hair and freckles, not stopping when both her kneecaps shattered, saving everyone she could, and only after everyone who was alive, was safe in the equipment room, did Artemis Crock dive for the equipment room herself. While she slipped in and out of consciousness Artemis couldn't help but think of her team, hoping they got out of wherever they were, and for some reason she couldn't stop herself from thinking about a certain speedster.

Even now, decades after the Earthquake, Artemis has no idea why she lived, while Robin died only meters above her. Sometimes she'll just sit in her wheel chair, with the eye patch over her one eye and wonder, wonder about the boy wonder who died while she lived.

* * *

They had been in the science lab, on the fifth floor. M'gann was helping him, being her usually bubbly self. She doesn't mind helping, science is just like baking and 'hello M'gann!' if she can get better at science than she might be able to stop burning the cookies. While she explained the formula again, just as patiently, he can't help but marvel at her beauty, and just once he's glad that he doesn't age, because then he can stay with M'gann for as long as possible. So while he's focused on her and she's focused on him, it takes a second for them to notice the shakes, truly, it's the screams that rip them out of their trance. Before they can even process what's happening the floor cracks, almost right in half. M'gann is thrown near the window and Conner is thrown to the other end of the room. Things, no, not things, dangerous chemicals go crashing through the air.

She could have stopped them in the air, but she was leaning out the window, trying to pull Wendy back inside, before there's an explosion of those dangerous chemicals and she's forced to push Wendy into a tree.

He's shielding some eight graders, who shouldn't have even been there that day, from the falling debris using nothing but his body and trying to simultaneously make a shelter for them out of the debris, pulling more kids under him, hoping the floor won't collapse. She has started to go back into the room and grab kids, the ones he can't reach, trying to not see the ones that have blank eyes and still bodies, trying not to grab their twisted, bloody limbs as she throws kid after kid onto that tree outside, hoping that they will be able to climb down the tree. They're both trying to ignore the screams, both trying to get as many kids safe as they can. They start to think that maybe everyone will make it out, and through their shared mental connection slivers of hope can be felt. When suddenly horror fills the link because there is now fire, red hot burning searing fire everywhere. Those dangerous chemicals now making their presence felt. He can feel her panic, but he also sees her start to work faster, throw more kids out, and something inside him is screaming at him to get up, get up get up and save _her_ but the kids with him are sobbing and some are praying and their screams make him hesitate. Some part of him realizes that the floors are about to collapse, the other part feels M'gann collapse and he knows it's her or them and almost chooses her. Through the link, just before he makes his final decision he hears her voice, feels an overwhelming sense of love, so much love. There's calmness there too and determination, she knows what she's doing. But so much that it screams, feels like nothing but love and he stays with those kids. Darn it he's crying openly now, he feels her pain now, as the fire takes her, but her love stays with him and right as the fire becomes an inferno and the floor collapses right under him he feels her in his head, he will always recognize her touch inside his head. She's saying three little cheesy words that he will carry with him to the end of his life, she's saying them with her dying thoughts, forever imprinting him with her three small words _"I love you"._

Sometimes he'll go and sit with Artemis, neither of them will say anything, he'll sit, lost in his mind, lost in the love that she gave him.

* * *

Wally West hated irony.

Of course he had to have a leg broken in three places (a week to heal even with superspeed) and be sitting in the hospital when the lightbulbs started to flicker, then shake, then crash to the floor. At first all he can do is watch, horribly entranced as the room starts to shake, and he's stuck in the bed, unable to walk, unable to run _. Useless_.

It takes a blood curdling scream that is abruptly (too abruptly) cut off to shake him into reality. Seconds later he sees someone outside his room fall, more to the point, he sees their big blond pony tail, that's what gets him to leap out of bed and tear into the hall. His superspeed doesn't work with the broken leg, but that doesn't even matter. Moving as fast as he can he picks up that woman in the hall and take her to the first floor, outside, to safety. He doesn't even hesitate to go back inside, this time he takes the stairs to the top floor, trying to keep his balances as everything starts to collapse and he somehow manages to dodge falling chunks of hospital to get those people out too, shoving them, dragging them to the fire escape which has even started to collapse too. He clears the top floor and moves to the next one then the next, then the next. He trips more than he should and starts having to carry people, hoping that their eyes are closed because they're tired and the blood on them is not theirs. The stairs are shaking so bad now and his body hurts so much, he doesn't even know why he hasn't been trapped under debris yet. It's a race against time, horrible time now and he hurts so much, he has no superspeed, but he keeps going because all he can hear, besides the screams is Artemis, she's not even there and he knows what she would say. _"Move Baywatch! Who cares about your stupid speed powers. The rest of you works, so save those peoples butts and MOVE"_ So he moves, even though he can barely walk now he keeps on diving in those hospital rooms and getting the crying kids, telling them they'll be alright, because they will be or he's failed as a hero. He carries them until he's sure they'll make it out okay and then he goes back in, sometimes dragging three people at once. Making sure they'll all make it. The building's collapsing so much now and there's so much debris and blood everywhere and he knows that his body is starting to shut down, even a speedsters body can't survive all the debris hitting it and there's blood covering him. He knows this is it so he grabs everyone he can and covers them with his body, hoping it'll be enough to save them. While he lets the building collapse on him, letting everything crash into his now broken body, he fills himself with all the good memories, the pranks, the friendship, the missions, the food, and as he preps himself for an eternal nap he makes sure he's thinking of _her._

He saved five people by throwing himself over them. They all say that he kept on repeating "Artemis, my spitfire" until the end.

* * *

Atlantis, was where the tremors started. Like birds sensing dangers, the fish were going nuts. In his home kingdom for a short visit, Kaldur had been in deep meditation. He didn't notice the first pillar shake, or the second or the fifth. What he did notice, was when everything felt wrong. You don't feel vibrations in the water more than how you sense them, a low hum going through the water. His eyes flew open. The kingdom wasn't crashing to the ground, it was hypnotically floating to the floor of the ocean. Like a slow motion video compared to the Atlantians swimming for their lives. It didn't take him long to swim against their current, _into,_ the city, into the very heart of Atlantis. There was something so ironic about talking to little children in the middle of a disaster. How he lowered his voice and gave them a hug. He held their hands and told them to line up, as if they were just crossing the street. As if everything was ok. When they asked him if what was going on, he told them everything was fine, that there was nothing to worry about. He sounded so calm, despite how his chest pounded. Then they swam, they swam out of the city that was floating to the ground. They swam, and others attached onto their line, until it wasn't just children attached to him with tears running down their faces. Upon reaching a safe stillness, he heard their parents sobs when they held their children and loved ones. He also heard the empty sobs of empty arms. That's when he knew he had to go back, and make another line.

They searched for his body for months. Debris of the once gleaming, water city had floated across the earth. Eventually, the few surviving and able bodied members of the Justice League (though they hardly ever called it that anymore) called the search off. Only Artemis and Superboy never gave up.

* * *

A lot of people could have died that day. A lot of people didn't die that day. A lot of people lived, thanks to the everyday heroes. They were the ones who knew that the costumes and the powers didn't matter, they knew that only the heart and the courage mattered. They died a hero's death. They died as Maskless Heroes.

* * *

 **So this one shot is a really old one that I found in my documents, and I liked and decided to brush it up a bit and post it. It's kinda cheesy kinda sad (at least I hope so) but the idea stuck with me and I could never really let it go. The grammar quality obviously isn't great, but I hope it isn't too distracting.**

 **Thanks for reading :)**

 **~Keep the dis away from the traught!**


End file.
